2.21.2011

Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman turned 65 today, February 21. To today's film audiences, he is probably best known as Snape in the Harry Potter franchise. While one of his earliest big breaks was as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, not long after, he starred in Truly Madly Deeply, a sweet romantic story about loss and life. If you've only ever seen him play villains or other sorts of dodgy or unlikeable characters, this film will introduce you to a kinder, gentler, and no less interesting Alan Rickman.

2.18.2011

Recommendation

CoyoteMoon Films recommends Pilar Alessandra. She is well known as a screenwriting instructor and script consultant. She has a writing program called On the Page and she has a series of podcasts as well.

2.15.2011

Free Film Screening at the Crossroads

From Victoria Westover at the University of Arizona:

Free Film Screening: Sci-Fi Meets Immigration Debate in Award Winning Sleep Dealer

University of Arizona Department of Spanish and Portuguese presents

FREE SCREENING: Sci-Fi Meets Immigration Debate in award winning film

This screening is part of the 21st Annual Graduate and Professional Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literature, Language, and Culture

SLEEP DEALER, 2008, USA/Mexico, 90 mins.
In Spanish with English subtitles
IN PERSON: DIRECTOR ALEX RIVERA (Q&A and post screening reception)

Friday, February 18th, 7PM
Grand Cinemas Crossroads
4811 East Grant Road (Grant & Swan)

Adventurous, ambitious and ingeniously futuristic, "Sleep Dealer" is a welcome surprise. It combines visually arresting science fiction done on a budget with a strong sense of social commentary in a way that few films attempt, let alone achieve... - Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

Gorgeous, intelligent, and intensely imaginative, Alex Rivera’s stunning first feature, Sleep Dealer, is set in a near future marked by airtight international borders, militarized corporate warriors, and an underground class of node workers who plug their nervous systems into a global computer network that commodifies memory.

Memo Cruz is a young campesino who lives with his family in a town fighting for its life, the small, dusty farm village of Santa Ana del Rio, Oaxaca. A private company has hijacked control of the area’s water supply and is selling it back to the village at outrageous prices, provoking the mobilization of aqua-terrorist cells. But Memo couldn’t care less about Santa Ana. He loves technology and dreams of leaving his small pueblo to find work in the hi-tech factories of the big cities in the north. He dreams of becoming a node worker and learns how to build his own transmitter, which he uses to hack into the lives of others and live vicariously. One night, he stumbles across a transmission destined to pave the way to the city of the future, but in a way Memo could never have expected.

Burning with visual energy and originality, Sleep Dealer is a fascinating and prescient work of science fiction that is as politically engaged as enjoyable to watch.
— Shari Frilot, Sundance Film Festival

ALEX RIVERA is a New York based digital media artist and filmmaker. His first feature film, SLEEP DEALER premiered at Sundance 2008, and won two awards, including the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Rivera is a Sundance Fellow and a Rockefeller Fellow. His work, which addresses concerns of the Latino community through a language of humor, satire, and metaphor, has also been screened at The Berlin International Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, The Guggenheim Museum, PBS, Telluride, and other international venues.

www.sleepdealer.com

This event is made possible with support from Confluence A Center for Creative Inquiry; Hanson Film Institute; Center for Latin American Studies; The Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program;and the Department of Gender and Women's Studies


If you're in Tucson on Friday, make time for a free screening and meet the filmmakers.

ScriptDoctor has a Blog

ScriptDoctor has a new blog located here: scriptdoctorcom.blogspot.com/

We hope writers and anyone interested in film will find it helpful and informative.

For Your Inspiration

Howard Allen recommends reading this article in The New York Times to learn about writer Peter Morgan's process as well as how films get made. The last couple of paragraphs (included below), says Allen, should inspire writers to find filmmakers like Clint Eastwood and Ron Howard.

“Clint is incredibly instinctive,” Mr. Morgan said, “and he’s anti-neurosis. It’s like antimatter. He’s totally without neurosis. The set of ‘Hereafter’ was one of happiest places I’ve ever been. It comes from trusting yourself and eliminating fear.”

Referring to Ron Howard, who directed the film version of “Frost/Nixon,” he continued: “Ron is the same way. He’s completely at home on a movie set, and I think it comes from practically growing up there. He and Clint are rather like sailors from a bygone century. They come into port every now and then, but really they live on the ship. They’re seafarers.”


But really, go read the whole thing.